Taqati highlights significance of ESCOs at RSB event

Rajiv Ravindran Pillai
, January 11th, 2018

Taqati, the programme management office for the Dubai Demand Side Management (DSM) strategy, took part in the Regulatory and Supervisory Bureau (RSB) for Electricity and Water annual event with accredited Energy Service Companies (ESCOs), held on 10 January, 2018 at the Four Seasons in DIFC, Dubai.

Aref Abou Zahr, executive director of Taqati, delivered a presentation highlighting the market potential for building retrofits in the emirate, as well as the key challenges and opportunities that can be tapped into these through leveraging government and policy makers and strong public private partnership and initiatives.

Abou Zahr said: “The gathering focuses on streamlining the ESCOs’ efforts towards achieving the targets of Demand Side Management 2030 (DSM 2030) strategy set up under the supervision of the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy, with the ambitious goal of reducing energy consumption 30 per cent by 2030, as ESCOs play an important role in the programme.”

The presentation highlighted the efforts needed to ensure success of the DSM Program 2 - Building Retrofits, which targets the retrofit of 30,000 buildings in Dubai to achieve savings of 1.9TWh by 2030, or around 12% of Dubai’s current electricity consumption.

By end of 2017, the programme has already retrofitted 2,000 buildings, generating total energy savings of about 170GWh since inception.